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Reef Pulsar review - Ultra Marine Magazine
Jan . 18 / 2021

"Before we proceed with the review, we do want readers to be aware that, as with TMCs last fixture (the Reef Photon), this unit bears more than just a passing resemblance to one currently on the market from Taiwan-based HM Electronics. Happy and open to discuss this subject, TMC were nonetheless keen to emphasise that despite the similarity, the Reef Pulsar is ‘a Tropical Marine Centre product that has been designed and engineered in partnership with HM Electronics, adapted for the UK/European market and which is backed up locally by Tropical Marine Centre.’  So, the bottom line is that although there may be an initial perception that this is “just a rebrand”, it’s technically not exactly the same product. Taking a positive view, one could say that TMC have used their experience in the field to find a product that works well, then reengineered and honed it for the UK market. Whatever your perception on this topic, the “proof is in the pudding” as they say! So, let’s first of all look at the packaging before we take the light out of the box, and we are generally happy with this aspect of the product. The box itself is sturdy yet was easy to access. All of the components are held securely yet there isn’t a packaging overload with awkward items to dispose of. (...)"

"(...) Let’s take a good look at the fixture now that we’ve got it running, and we’ll be looking at the ‘on paper’ info too here (this info relates specifically to the SPS-8 fixture, not the LPS-6). So first and foremost, this is clearly a twin array light and take note that the two arrays are spaced 20cm apart (from centre to centre… each array is 7cm square). Operating at the recommended height, this light spread is claimed to be sufficient for a footprint of 100x50x50cm. We concur with this indeed the light spread was a little wide for our 60x60cm square test tank. Across the 2 arrays there are a total of 24 individual LEDs and these are good quality Osram LEDs. Split into 8 different channels there are a mixture of 6500k white, 400nm, 420nm, 450nm, 470nm, 505nm, ‘3000k’ and 660nm diodes (essentially 2 shades of UV/purple, 2 deep blue, 1 green, 1 cool white, 1 warm white and 1 red). Some of the channels consist of more than 1 colour bulb incidentally. Overall, this allows for a flexible spectral output to be attained, and we believe this output is entirely sufficient to achieve good coral health and colour if other important conditions are conducive. (...)"

To learn more about this review please see the article published on 21st December in Ultra Marine Magazine.